The Heroic Age

[250] Chiefly because the description of the shield (vv. 139-320) appears to correspond to the art of that period.

[251] The κύκλοι embraced much more than the story of Troy; cf. W. v. Christs Geschichte d. griech. Litteratur⁵, § 47 f. The relationship of these works to the poems may be compared with that of Völsunga Saga to the heroic poems of the Edda.

[252] Schol. to Euripides, Troades, 822.

[253] Eusebius, Chron., ad Olymp. 53. The same authority however also attributes it to Cinaithon of Lacedaemon (ad Olymp. 4).

[254] Fragm. 6 (Bergk), from Pausanias, IX 9. 5.

[255] The Suppliants is hardly to be reckoned as a heroic play. It is referred to a time many generations before the siege of Troy and all the characters appear to be personifications of nationalities. Regarding the epic Danais little information seems to be obtainable.

[256] The Ion and Bacchai are perhaps rather to be regarded as pre-heroic; the former deals with a story which apparently belongs to the same type as Aeschylus' Suppliants.

[257]

In this passage the word ἥρως seems to have already begun to acquire its later meaning, viz. a distinguished man of the past (generally of the Heroic Age) who was honoured with worship, though not as a god. For such worship Teutonic records naturally furnish few parallels, since most of the Teutonic peoples became Christian either during the Heroic Age itself or soon after. We may compare however what Jordanes (cap. 13) says of the Goths: proceres suos, quorum quasi fortuna uincebant, non puros homines sed semideos, id est Ansis, uocauerunt. In Old Norse the name æsir (*ansīz) is applied only to the gods (Othin, Thor, etc.); but we do hear occasionally of worship paid to heroes of the Heroic Age, as well as to distinguished persons of later times. An instance of the former (in the case of Hrólfr Kraki) occurs in Yngl. S. 41.

[258] In the Nostoi after the departure from Troy some of the Achaeans (Calchas, Leonteus and Polypoites) were made to arrive at Colophon. The story of Calchas' contest with Mopsos perhaps comes from the same source.

[259] Once also, together with Ἀχαιοί (Il. II 684), as a name for the subjects of Achilles, or rather Peleus. Ἑλλάς is used sometimes for a place or district in Peleus' kingdom, sometimes apparently in a wider sense.

[260] He states (I 57) that in his time they inhabited Placia and Scylace, on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara, and Κρηστῶνα πόλιν, probably in the Chalcidian peninsula (though some scholars emend this name to Κρότωνα, i.e. Cortona in Tuscany). Down to the fifth century they are said to have also occupied Lemnos and Imbros (IV 145, V 26, VI 138 ff.), and in early times Samothrace (II 51), while their name was preserved at Antandros, in the Gulf of Adramyttion (VII 42). Later writers speak of the Pelasgoi as having formerly inhabited many other regions. Into the difficult problems connected with this name we need not enter here; for the most recent and perhaps fullest discussion of the subject reference may be made to Prof. Myres' paper in the Journ. Hell. St. 1907, p. 170 ff. As regards the etymology analogies indicate that Πελασγοί represents an earlier form *Pelag-skoi. If this is a Greek word the most probable meaning is 'people of the sea' (though another explanation has been proposed; cf. Kretschmer, Glotta I 16 f.). But it may really be a national name (cf. Πελάγονες). In that case we may note that the use of the suffix -sko- in national names is Indo-European, though not Greek.

[261] Meyer, S.-B. d. Akad. zu Berlin, 1908, p. 18.

[262] Into the linguistic affinities of these various peoples we need not enter here. It will be sufficient to notice that the Thracian and Phrygian languages are commonly believed to have belonged to the eastern division of the Indo-European group. Certainly this is the case with the language of the Armenians, who according to Herodotus (VII 73) were an offshoot (ἄποικοι) of the Phrygians. The evidence of the Phrygian inscriptions themselves is unfortunately somewhat ambiguous. To the same eastern division belonged the ancient Illyrian languages, if the present dialects of Albania are descended from them. On the other hand the languages of the indigenous peoples throughout Asia Minor and the Aegean area are commonly believed to have been non-Indo-European. Yet Prof. Conway (British School at Athens, Ann. VIII, p. 141 ff.) holds that the inscriptions of Praisos belonged to a language of this group. If this should turn out to be the case with the earlier Cretan inscriptions current views as to the early history of the Indo-European languages would require considerable modification.

[263] For England from its unification under Alfred the Great to the present time the average is about twenty years; for France from 840 to 1793 it is between twenty-three and twenty-four years.

[264] Forsch. z. alten Geschichte, p. 170 f. The reckoning is not due to Herodotus himself but taken over by him from an earlier writer. Prof. Meyer suggests as its author Hecataeus, who was a contemporary of Cleomenes.

[265] Op. cit. p. 178 ff.

[266] Eratosthenes reckons nearly 320 years from the accession (birth) of Eurysthenes to that of Alcamenes in the ninth generation, while the reigns of the father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather of the latter make up 159 years. Sosibius, who reckoned by the Eurypontid dynasty, appears to have had a similar period of 320 years from Procles to Theopompos, although his dates were different from those of Eratosthenes—1091/0 to 771/0 according to Prof. Meyer (op. cit. p. 179 f.). The accession of Theopompos was equated with that of Alcamenes by Eratosthenes. Possibly these periods were originally subdivisions of a longer period of 640 years, reckoned from the fortieth year of Cleomenes (or Leonidas?).

[267] Two names (Prytanis and Eunomos) in the Eurypontid list are generally regarded with doubt, but none of the Agiad names is really of a suspicious character. The fact that Agis and Eurypon are not the first names in the genealogies ought not to be used as an argument against the trustworthiness of the tradition. In many Teutonic genealogies—e.g. the Gothic, Frankish (Merovingian), Kentish, East Anglian and Mercian—the name which performs patronymic function is not that which stands first in the list.

[268] Prof. Meyer's view is not that the chronologists fixed too early a date for the Dorian invasion, but that the early parts of the genealogies themselves are unhistorical.

[269] Prof. Meyer (op. cit. p. 173 and note) cites the case of Telamon the son of Poseidon, ancestor of the priests of Poseidon at Halicarnassos, whom he places after the Return of the Heracleidai. But the question is a complicated one. The genealogy cannot be used for our purpose, as we do not know where it ends.

[270] Cf. Töpffer, Attische Genealogie, p. 278 f.; Meyer, op. cit. p. 174, note.

[271] Battos I is believed to have founded Cyrene about 630. It may be observed that the interval between that date and 466 is surprisingly short for the lapse of seven generations.

[272] British School at Athens, Ann. XIV, pp. 3, 18 f.

[273] Cf. Hawes, Crete the Fore-runner of Greece, p. 18. A much later date is favoured by Dr Dörpfeld (Ath. Mitteilungen, XXXII 602), whose views on Cretan chronology differ greatly from those of English archaeologists. To this question we shall have to refer again in a later chapter.

[274] British School at Athens, Ann. XIII, p. 423 ff.

[275] Early Age of Greece, p. 317. Representations of both the Vase and the Stele are given in the same work (p. 313 f.).

[276] Dr Mackenzie's theory would certainly gain in probability if it could be shown that the Pelasgoi were identical with the Pulesatha or Philistines (cf. p. 188). The arguments in favour of such an identification are obvious enough; but they are scarcely of such a nature as to carry conviction. The appearance of -st- for -gsk- in the name is perhaps hardly to be regarded as an insuperable difficulty; for we know nothing of the languages involved or of the sound-changes to which they were subject.

[277] Cf. Hall, The Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 180 f.; Ann. of the Brit. School at Athens, VIII, p. 180; Petrie, History of Egypt, p. 108 ff.

[278] Hall, Ann. of the Brit. School, VIII 183; cf. also Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, IV, p. 37 f.

[279] Prof. Breasted (l.c.) gives these names as Peleset, Thekel (i.e. Zakar), Shekelesh (omitted above), Denyen and Weshesh.

[280] Cf. Hall, op. cit. p. 177 f.

[281] Cf. Breasted, History of Egypt, pp. 336, 386; Hall, op. cit. p. 176 f.

[282] Cf. W. M. Müller, Asien und Europa, pp. 361, 363; Petrie, History of Egypt, III, p. 150.

[283] Cf. W. M. Müller, op. cit. pp. 361, 371; Petrie, op. cit. pp. 151, 162.

[284] Cf. Meyer, S.-B. der Akad. zu Berlin, 1908, p. 18 f.

[285] A considerable number of the figures are reproduced in W. M. Müller's Asien und Europa (cap. 27, 28); many also in the Histories of Egypt by Meyer and Petrie.

[286] This head-dress is figured on a discus recently found at Phaistos (Crete) among deposits dating from 'Middle Minoan III' (cent. XVII?). The discus, if not actually of Cretan origin, is said to come clearly from some district under the influence of Cretan civilisation. Cf. Meyer, S.-B. d. Akad. zu Berlin, 1910, p. 1022 ff.

[287] They are said to be white; but it is difficult to believe that they are not metal—possibly bronze overlaid with tin (cf. Il. XXIII 560 ff.).

[288] The shields figured on the Vase (apparently also those on the Stele) seem to have a section cut out of them; but they can hardly be regarded otherwise than as round shields. Cf. Lippold, Münchener Arch. Studien, p. 406.

[289] Except the Assyrians (cf. p. 203, note); but there the evidence comes from much later times.

[290] It occurs probably on the discus from Phaistos (cf. Meyer l.c.) and on a porcelain fragment from the third shaft-grave at Mycenae (cf. Reichel, über hom. Waffen, p. 58)—both times in conjunction with head-dresses of the Pulesatha or Shardina types—as well as on ivory objects from Enkomi in Cyprus (cf. Evans, Journ. Anthr. Inst., XXX 209), here also in conjunction with similar armature, though only the lower part of the helmet is visible.

[291] Many of the figures, both Shardina and Pulesatha, wear body-armour of some kind. Greaves are first found at Enkomi.